Tesla vs GM: Revenue, Sales, and Vehicle Profit Margin

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General Motors and Tesla are among the major players in the automotive sector. Tesla is the first mover in the EV space.

On the other hand, GM is a latecomer in the EV space but the company is established in the fossil-fueled vehicle segment. GM has existed for over a century while Tesla has operated for only a decade.

Tesla’s market strategy focuses on direct-to-consumer sales through its own stores and online platform, bypassing traditional dealership networks. The company also emphasizes software updates and connectivity, with features like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving.

GM primarily sells its vehicles through a network of dealerships. While the company is investing in advanced technologies, such as its Ultium battery platform and Super Cruise, its transition to EVs is more gradual compared to Tesla’s all-electric approach.

That said, this article compares Tesla with GM in several aspects, including vehicle revenue, margins, and profitability.

Let’s get started!

Investors interested in other key statistics of GM and Tesla may find more resources on these pages:

Tesla

• Marketing and advertising spending: Tesla vs GM vs Ford,
• Tesla sales and production by models,
• Tesla profitability: consolidated, automotive, energy, and services,
• Tesla cash analysis: cash flow, cash on hand, and digital assets,

GM

• GM revenue streams: sales of new and used car, services, and more,
• GM sales by region: America, Asia, MEA, and Europe,
• GM market share by country: U.S., China, Brazil, U.K., Germany, etc.,
• GM assets analysis: long-term, receivables, property, etc.,

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Definitions

To help readers understand the content better, the following terms and glossaries have been provided.

Revenue Per Car: Revenue Per Car is defined as automotive revenue excluding leasing, regulatory credits, non-automotive segments, etc., divided by vehicle sales.

Revenue Per Car = Automotive Revenue / Vehicle Sales

Vehicle sales represent vehicle wholesale in the case of General Motors and vehicle retail volume excluding leasing in the case of Tesla.

Profit Per Car: Profit Per Car is defined as automotive gross profit divided by vehicle sales

Profit Per Car = Automotive Gross Profit / Vehicle Sales

Vehicle sales represent vehicle wholesale in the case of General Motors and vehicle retail volume excluding leasing in the case of Tesla.

Vehicle Margin: Vehicle margin is defined as the ratio of automotive gross profit to automotive revenue.

Vehicle Margin = Automotive Gross Profit / Automotive Revenue

Automotive revenue represents car sales revenue excluding GM Financial in the case of General Motors and leasing, regulatory credits, and energy in the case of Tesla.

Operating Margin: Operating margin is a financial metric that measures a company’s efficiency in generating profit from its operations.

It is expressed as a percentage and is calculated by dividing operating income (also known as operating profit) by net sales (revenue).

Operating Margin = Operating Income / Total Net Revenue

Essentially, operating margin shows what percentage of revenue is left over after paying for variable costs of production, such as wages and raw materials.

It’s a key indicator of a company’s financial health and its ability to manage its operations effectively. The higher the operating margin, the more profitable the company is considered to be.

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Insight & Summary of Tesla vs GM in Revenue, Profit Margin, and Per Vehicle Economics

The following analysis consolidates the trends observed across the comparison between Tesla and General Motors in revenue, vehicle sales, profit margin, and per car economics for the 2017–2025 period.

• Revenue Scale: GM is larger, Tesla was faster — but both are now decelerating. GM’s total revenue has ranged between $122B and $187B, with a 3-year average of $181.4B — roughly 1.9x Tesla’s $96.4B. GM’s revenue is supported by a broad product portfolio across ICE, hybrids, and a growing EV lineup, as well as substantial financial services revenue outside the automotive segment. Tesla’s revenue grew explosively from $11.8B in 2017 to a peak of $97.7B in 2024 — an 8x increase in seven years — before contracting to $94.8B in 2025. That contraction, the first in Tesla’s public history, marks a meaningful inflection: pricing pressure, demand softening, and competitive headwinds have begun to offset volume growth. GM’s own 2025 revenue of $185.0B represents a modest decline from its 2024 peak, reflecting a challenging North American market environment.

• Automotive Gross Margin: Tesla’s premium advantage is compressing rapidly. This is the most structurally significant trend in the dataset. Tesla’s automotive gross margin peaked at 26.5% in 2021 — a level that justified significant premium valuation multiples — but has since declined sharply to 14.5% in 2025. Its 3-year average of 15.4% is still meaningfully above GM’s 9.2%, but the gap has narrowed dramatically from the 15+ percentage-point advantage Tesla held in 2021–2022. GM’s 2025 margin of 5.3% is its lowest in the dataset, reflecting cost pressures, warranty charges, and the ongoing investment phase of its EV transition. The convergence of automotive gross margins is one of the defining competitive dynamics of the current period.

• Operating Profitability: Tesla still leads on margin but GM has caught up on dollars. Tesla’s 3-year average operating margin of 7.0% exceeds GM’s 4.6%, but GM’s operating profit in dollars ($8.3B average) is now larger than Tesla’s ($6.8B), owing to GM’s far greater revenue base. Tesla’s operating margin peaked at 16.8% in 2022 and has compressed to 4.6% in 2025 — a 12-percentage-point contraction in three years. GM’s 2025 operating margin of 1.6% is its weakest in the dataset, though its 2024 operating profit of $12.8B demonstrated strong earnings capability in a favorable environment. Both companies are navigating a challenging cost structure in the near term, with Tesla’s cost base inflated by AI and autonomy investments, and GM’s by EV ramp costs and restructuring.

• Vehicle Sales: Volumes tell the full story of scale asymmetry. GM wholesaled approximately 3.86M vehicles per year on average over the last three years — more than double Tesla’s 1.74M deliveries. GM’s volumes have been compressing since 2017 (from 5.47M) and appear to be stabilizing in the 3.5–4.0M range. Tesla’s delivery growth stalled in 2024–2025 after peaking at 1.81M in 2023, with 2025 deliveries of 1.64M representing the first annual decline — a material signal given that Tesla’s entire investment thesis has rested on volume trajectory.

• Revenue Per Car: The gap has closed to near-parity. Tesla’s revenue per vehicle has declined from a remarkable $79,369 in 2017 (when it sold only the high-priced Model S/X) to $41,280 in 2025, driven by the volume mix shift to lower-priced models (Model 3/Y) and deliberate price cuts. GM’s revenue per vehicle has risen steadily from $25,082 to $44,215, as it shifted its mix toward higher-margin trucks and SUVs. The 3-year average is nearly identical: GM at $42,950 vs Tesla at $42,803. This convergence — unthinkable five years ago — means Tesla has lost its premium revenue-per-unit positioning and must now compete increasingly on cost efficiency and margin structure.

• Gross Profit Per Car: Tesla retains an advantage but it is eroding. Tesla’s 3-year average gross profit per vehicle of $6,613 is 1.7x GM’s $3,928. However, Tesla’s per-unit gross profit peaked at $15,042 in 2018 and has since declined to $5,992 in 2025, while GM’s has been more stable (ranging $2,328–$5,122 over the same window). The compression of Tesla’s per-unit economics is the quantitative expression of its pricing strategy and volume prioritization — it has traded margin per unit for market share, but that trade-off is becoming increasingly visible in reported results.

• Structural Takeaway: The 2017–2025 period represents a completed arc for the Tesla-GM comparison. Tesla began the period as a niche premium EV maker with extraordinary unit economics; GM was an established mass-market manufacturer with modest margins. Today, both companies have converged significantly on revenue per unit, their gross margins are closer than at any prior point, and their operating profits in absolute dollar terms are roughly comparable. The key unresolved question for the next phase is whether Tesla’s autonomy and AI strategy (FSD, Robotaxi, Optimus) can re-establish the margin gap that its vehicle business alone has lost — or whether GM’s cost discipline and scale advantages in manufacturing will allow it to close the remaining gap in return on capital. For investors, the critical watch metrics are Tesla’s gross margin trajectory and GM’s EV profitability timeline.

The table below combines all key revenue, profit margin, and per car economics metrics into a single view for the latest three fiscal years.

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Revenue – Total and Automotive

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Profit and Margin – Automotive

The definition of vehicle margin is available here: vehicle margin. Vehicle margin for both companies is evaluated based on the automotive gross profit margin.

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Profit and Margin – Operations

The definition of operating margin is available here: operating margin.

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Vehicle Sales and Revenue Per Car

The definition of revenue per car is available here: revenue per car.

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Profit and Margin Per Car

The definition of profit per car is available here: profit per car. Profit per car for both companies is evaluated based on the automotive gross profit.

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References and Credits

1. All financial figures presented were obtained and referenced from GM and Tesla’s annual reports published on the companies’ respective investor relations pages: GM SEC filings and Tesla SEC filings.

2. Pexels Images.

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Disclosure

We may use the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to produce some of the text in this article. However, the data is directly obtained from original sources (usually the quarterly and annual reports) and meticulously cross-checked by our editors multiple times to ensure its accuracy and reliability.

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